The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1887-11-13
Theories Useless and Useful.

| htly celebrated by the people.
Theories Useless and Useful.
Not the least Of our difficulties In the man
agement Of public affairs grows out of the
propensity to invent ideal systems In poll
tics. Many men seem entirely unconscious
Of the fact that political institutions are
necessarily product OF evolution, and that
step by step, from the earliest forms to their
most highly perfected development, we move
wisely only when we follow the links Of an
ascending chain, chain suspended In place
by an Infinite intelligence and precisely
adapted to our finite powers Of locomotion.
| More than twenty-five centuries have
passed since the conception Of P1ATo's Re-
public. Have we advanced single step
toward tho realization Of that delightful
dreamP Possibly we have advanced many
steps, but by what route? Mankind have
been stumbling over debris, setting up
thrones and maintaining dynasties. or pull
ing down and destroying, and there has
seemed to be no end Of apparently futile en-
deavor. But the race has been stumbling
upward continually until at last, having re-
allied the conception Of town meeting and
placed the individual above the State, PLATO
Is vaguely In sight again. But had the Greek
philosopher anything to do with the progress
that has been made? Nothing whatever.
The world would have travelled over pre-
cisely the same road, met with the same re-
verses. and rejoiced over the Same victories
had PLATO never been born. What 1t has
done it has done in response to its Instincts,
and at the demand Of It's necessities.
This is not said with any desire to dispar-
age theoretical philosophers Under proper
limitations theory Is q good thing. It is
only to be reprehended when 1t is conceived
without any reference to facts and current
events, and Is founded on the conviction
that all the men who have wrought at the
social fabric during many centuries were
only a set Of incapables. PLATO was the
orist, and his theory Of State, though pos
sibly harmless as piece Of mental pyro-
technics, was worthless But THOMAS JET
PERSON WAS also theorist, and his theories
have moved the world. Why this difference?
Tho theories Of JEFFERSON did not demand
radical reconstruction either Of society or
OF Its individual units. They only demanded
the removal Of few abuses
The chapter which is now enacting in the
history Of the United States. or rather in
the history of Christendom, might justly be
entitled by the future historian The Tran
scendental Theorist Unclaimed. We have an
indefinite number OF men, not classified
In census reports, who are engaged at the
work Of evolving social or political systems.
They are rambling at large throughout tho
nations, and it may be observed that they
advocate their ideals without any reference
to prevailing forms Of government, or the
social status Of the community selected for
their propaganda. A political theorist Of
this character from republican America
would be even more at home in Berlin or St.
Petersburg than in New York. He would
not be quite so safe in either Of those
two foreign capitals as in New York,
for, like Englishmen In the days of Prince
HAMLET, we can give the freedom Of the
town to men Of crazy ideas because they will
not be so much observed here. But were he
left at liberty to carry on his propaganda in
those cities, the theorist from the American
republic would find himself in a more con-
genial atmosphere than If he remained at
Aome. He Is citizen Of the world, not of
the real world Of existent facts, but of the
world Of dreams. Under peculiar pressure
he has been known to confess himself for
eigner to every country. He does not pro-
pose to build from the quarries that have
furnished stones for the American political
structure. Some of his material. indeed, he
would bring from equatorial Africa.
Yet we possess In the United States some
extensive formations Of very solid material,
which all men with propensity for building
castles might do well to study before trying
to lay even the corner stone of any Of their
fanciful constructions. But first, the very
ground itself must be surveyed. 1t is lit
tered all over with the leaves of musty Fed
eral and State Constitutions, old In them
selves and older yet In the principles which
they represent. They are curiously aggres-
sive In their chief features, too, and they
cover the ground 30 completely that it
will be impossible to find place for
anything new without resting the stones
on the foundations already erected. A
young HERCULES OF reform may not
think this serious difficulty; but it
will prove serious. Subject only to laws
passed for securing justice between man
and man, American citizens OF the true
instinct demand the right to control their
own affairs right which necessarily COM
prehends the control of their personal pos
sessions. 1t was to reaffirm and strengthen
this right that our constitutional system
was conceived; and 1t would be impossible
to throw stronger barrier in the way of the
transcendental theorists.
Would it not be found great deal easier
for our politico-social philanthropists to dis
cover opportunities for helping their fellows
IL they should become better naturalzed as
Americans The question is asked as well
for men born in Pennsylvania or New York as
in Kamtchatka. With Constitution founded
on certain very clearly defined principles of
social organization, and a community of
such old Hunkers that this Constitu-
ton not only became possible but was
direct outgrowth of popular aspirations, it
will DO very hard to find any new building |
material. The edifice begun more than one
hundred years ago, nearly three hundred |
years ago it might be said Is not quite COM
pleted. Some of the shafts are not yet crowned |
with their proper capitals; and in few in
stances the plans Of the architects seem to |